social metrics

Lessons in ‘net worth’ from the older generations. My Gran would love this and would promptly dispatch a: ‘Told you so, Christopher, now stop using those pesky credit cards.’

Well played, Gran. Well played.

megamashup:

Esquire weighs in on the boomer/millennial conflict

Social Media Today ran a super-dooper article about ‘3 key metrics that matter in the new subscription economy’.

Subscription-based businesses are all the rage with companies like SalesForce, Spotify, DropBox and others building a strong customer base in recent years. 

The article talks about three important financial metrics for subscription businesses:

1. Retention Rate - amount of recurring revenue you keep each year (target = 90%).
2. Recurring profit margin - recurring revenue minus ‘churn’ (subscribing customers that leave) and non-growth spend. (target = 50%)
3. Growth efficiency - amount of money it costs to bring in $1 of actual cash value (so mo’ money). (target = 1:1)

These are some really good metrics to monitor to keep an eye on the financial well-being of a subscription business. But there’s more to this story. 

In addition to these three metrics, I see 2 other key metrics that companies offering subscription-based products should monitor:

1. Customer satisfaction levels - keeping a pulse on customer satisfaction, any issues and customer pain points will help businesses understand reasons for subscription churn and potential ways of increasing retention rate. It’s nice to be nice (and good for business).  
2. Competitive benchmark metrics - knowing more about your competitors (subscription-based and sale-based competitors) helps with churn, continuing to offer a valuable service and watch out for any sneaky sales plays - those little devils. 

I see customer satisfaction data, competitive benchmarking and financial metrics as interrelated. There is ‘cause and effect’  in both directions from customer satisfaction to financial data and so forth.

That makes it important to look at data holistically to ensure your business understands all of the factors involved in retaining and growing a subscription model.  

Unofficial Napkin ROI Benefits (Taken with instagram)

Converting Content - How well does shared content convert viewers to followers? An idea for a funky social media measurement metric for brands. Calculating the ratio of reach and impressions to new followers for each piece of content may help understand what content pieces bring in more followers. (Taken with instagram)

Pew Research Center (I say ‘La Pew’ for short) published a paper showing that response telephone survey response rates have dropped to 9%. 

We’ve seen this happening for years and it’s a little bit of ‘We know that!’ type moment - but seeing that 9% in black and white print is still a little bit surprising. 

For research, this is important because it’s an important reminder that measurement needs to be more holistic. Think digital metrics, co-collaboration, social media, internet surveys and internal big data - the whole kit and kaboodle. 

Marketers, brand people, advertisers and researchers need to look at multiple data sources to find some insight for businesses to use. Relying on a single research method, especially those with a low response rate like telephone surveys, may not cut the mustard any longer.